Well, it’s been about 24 hours since I posted the Halo death notice (I love that graphic of the tombstone that Rodney made for me). In my email client I have a folder called “Halo Hate” that I created almost a year ago specifically to put emails in that were from people either 1) Saying I didn’t know anything about movies or 2) Calling me various names. All in response to the fact that for some time, I’ve seen the writing on the wall and that Halo was headed for disaster (As of today there are 140 messages in that folder). The fact is that Halo has been horribly mishandled since day one. Everyone said I was an idiot and subjected me to a lot of abuse… well… you read the story yesterday.
HOWEVER…
As badly as Halo has been handled up to this point and what a mess the people at Bungie and Micronut (Thanks for that phrase Chark) have made of things… there is a silver lining to this debacle. As a matter of fact… when all is said and done… we may all look back at yesterday and say that Halo getting canceled (for now) may have been the BEST thing to happen to it in the long run. Consider the following…
1) Perhaps now Neil Blomkamp can actually cut his teeth on a smaller project and get some experience under his belt before doing Halo. This would be nothing but positive for Halo. The main job of the director is working with actors (It’s why George Lucas did such a bad job with the prequels). Blomkamp has never really done this… and to get some real movie experience working with real performers on a real project will do nothing but improve Halo’s chances of being the good movie so many people want it to be.
2) Perhaps Peter Jackson realizes he needs to make amends for King Kong and decides to direct Halo himself? Tell me that wouldn’t be every Halo fan’s wet dream.
3) It gives the Halo folks more time to examine the script, give more thought to it and perhaps improve it even more
4) Now that Bungie realizes they don’t know squat about the movie business, perhaps they’ll be more knowledgeable about what to look for in potential partners… and to actually LISTEN to those partners.
5) Visual effects technology is only getting better and better each day. If Halo would have looked amazing visually now… just think about how good it may look if they do it 3 years from now.
6) Realistically, WETA is over booked right now anyway, and I know for a fact that they’ve been hiring freelance (non-weta artists) artists out the ying yang to make up for it. Perhaps now, when Halo is actually gets rolling, it’ll be staffed by true WETA team members exclusively.
7) Maybe (and this is just my personal thought) with all this time they have to think about it, perhaps they’ll decide to scrap the live action route and do a full 3D CGI movie instead. I think that would be amazing.
The point is, that many of us could see yesterday coming from a mile away… BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD for Halo fans. This could be the best thing that could have happened… and I think the end result… if Bungie takes its head out of its ass and learns some things… will be a better Halo movie then what we were destined to end up with… which in my opinion wasn’t going to be very good.
Halo will live again at some point… and it’ll be better than it would have been if it hadn’t had been stopped. But that’s just my two cents worth.
Yeah, man. I’ve dried my salty tears of fury and couldn’t give a rat’s ass now. I’d love to see it made, but it is what it is.
Too bad you sold your XBOX, Drewbacca. Razing losers in the XBOX Live community is an entertainment all it’s own.
HALO is so 5 minutes ago. At this point, I don’t even care anymore. I sold my Xbox and all the losers in the Xbox live community went right along with it. Hallelujah!
~Drewbacca
MoviePatron.com
Once again John you attack Bungie, and I thing your wrong. Bungie control over the movie is very little from the interviews with Peter Jackson its clear that i hs control over the movie he picked the director he order the script rewrite and Microsoft, o owns Bungie, trusts is judgment in fact Microsoft is supporting Peter new company wingnut interactive that is essential producing video game experiment to tell stories and the first one is set in the Halo universe. So the real reason for the delay is… Money of course. Universal and Paramount got cold feet because of the budget, so they think Microsoft makes more money than us why the hell should we take all the risk so they wanted to renegotiate Peter Jackson and Microsft didn’t so the deal gets delayed, how long? thats the question. 3 new Halo games are coming, Halo 3, Halo Wars (strategy game) and the Peter Jackson experiment, so theres no shortage of Halo. On some other issues I think your right a Neil short budget movie would give him the chance to prove himself like the Matrix brothers did, and gives more time for Weta continue to grow and have more resources to handle more movies at the same time.
Damn John,
I dont disagree with anything you said. Especially #2 (although, I would be just as happy if Del Toro came back to this after Hellboy 2), but now I dont know how to react to this optimistic HALO post.
Dammit John, Why have you done this to me.
Well…
Except for the all-CGI animated thing. I think live-action is the best way to go.
Whew… now I feel better.
OK, now I’m curious. What’s Halo?
John,
Yeah, the whole ‘Halo movie’ thing is a mess…
Thanks for being sooooo “concerned” John.
Maybe they’ll announce that studios dumped it cuz Bill Gates himself demanded on being the Spartan…that would make your day huh?
I would really hope, John, that I do not stand alone when it comes to your “Halo Hate Mail”…in fact, regarding #1, that’s a real case of deja vu. You read my comment the other day; you know I could not agree with you more.
HOWEVER
I again mildly disagree with you on the script point. (3) There is no evidence to suggest early drafts of Halo were bad. The first guy was paid a mil for his efforts; his “employers” sold off the sp to Universal for 10 mil. [intinally, Fox would get intnl dist.] Then again, some scribes are guns for hire, and are paid to write stuff what the guys paying the bills want to see. It *could* have been horrid. It *could* have been great.
It could very well be a well writen script that is in the process of being watered down and chopped up like garlic. Hasn’t been the first time this has happened to writers. Rest assured, it won’t be the last.
That said, I also think that now ‘Halo’ is on the shelf and back in development hell, whoever takes the mantle… will grow backbone and a brain stem, and for better or worse…clean the plate n’ wipe the slate. New script. New scribe. New this, new that.
Then we knew that stuff should happen, but only if Bungi/Mircrosofty allows filmmakers -and studios-creative freedoms (4)
Like (2)…personally? I’d like to see Takashi Yamazaki behind this, but I would have accepted Jackson..or even Del Toro, who opted for “Hellboy 2” instead. What’s Del Toro doing after “Hellboy 2”? Will be be offered “Halo” again? If Bungi/Mircosofty makes these crazy demands again, well, they better hope Blomkamp does more stuff by then, because nobody in thier right mind would touch it. (Okay, there is one guy who might, : U.B.)
and while John’s right on with some CG visual effects looking better in the next year, (5) all I got to say to that is …sorry, John, …BULLCRAP. Not that CG might improve, but the mere idea that it makes the movie alone. I hope are not suggesting that.
7) I hope not. Something like ‘300’ or ‘Sin City’, “Sky Cap’n” …okay. Now we are talking. And it won’t cost no 150+ million either.
Of course, it’s a moot point anyway, because I feel that, in the end, it’s nothing but numbers…
:p
I thought a lot of the first hour of Kong was way way too long. Some parts could have been cut. Overall I did think Kong was amazing, I gave it 8/10.
I don’t know why people are so excited about Halo being made into a film. Yeah the games are badass, but the story is not that great at all.
I know the main in’s and out’s of the books and they do have a good back story with Master Chief and how he was trained. So they should go along with some of the stories in the books instead of the game.
Before I came into post on this. I was going to say
“Make amends for Kong! Whatever do you mean!”
But everyone has said it for me. Kong was fucking great!
PS. Who’s sick of all the Halo posts. I for one.
Make amends for King Kong???
No way, it was an awesome movie.
John in the end it is not Bungie’s call “they are a game development company” in the end it’s Microsoft’s executives call.
Whoops, hit the post button a bit prematurely there.
I think a fully CG movie of Halo would be really bad and would also not be NEARLY as successful as a live action movie. I didn’t see that Final Fantasy movie in any of the cinemas here, I saw it come ot on DVD, but Halo is far too big to be a straight to DVD release.
Hopefully, like you suggested, this delay might be good for WETA. Some of the vis-effects in King Kong were absolutly horrid (the chase scene with the long knecks anyone?) Whereas some were spectacular, perhaps this might give them time to get themselves together.
But still, I think this movie has a very good chance of being great. If it turns out bad, will the wait have been worth it? Was there any point in these continued delays? Or was it just a grand waste of our time and faith?
In the end, I think that they will come out and suprise us with a good movie that can transcend the line between the gaming faithful and the movie-going audience.
That would be sweet if Jackson directs Halo (never palyed it; no intentions to do so yet)! When I told my friend (a Halo fan) about this news, he also felt the same way, it could be better off from live-action and into CGI. I liked Neil Blomkamp’s short films, but they guy needs to practice first.
With poor planning from the start, the Halo film had the same risk as Heaven’s Gate, especially with money wasted for nothing happening. Sure, Titanic (I know, it’s on your overrated list) had the same risk too, but we’re talking about James Cameron (Terminator 1&2, Aliens). All Halo had was a beginner and Peter Jackson is the producer spot (the lesser one).
All in all, I’d prefer waiting until a script and director (if Neil is able to hold on) is set, then move forward. Until then, we must sadly look forward to Resident Evil III movie (well, the rest of you; I actually like those films, so I can endure them).
While we’re on the topic, why DID Lucas direct the prequels after the first trilogy was such a hit?
Kong had 30 minutes of unnecessary filler. Also, you clearly saw what bringing in non WETA people looks like. Some of the water scenes, the running-at-the-feet-of-the-dinos-almost-getting-stomped-scene, and the cartoony looking pole vault jumping scene are great examples of that. While the rest of the film looked stunning, those and a few others stood out, in an awful way. Just a month or so extra post production work would have turned Kong into a strong 9/10 instead of the 7/10 it ended up with. Immensity frustrating.
Kong was cool. The Trex scene was worth the admission alone. C’mon he took on three Trex’s with one hand tied behind his back!! I think Kevin Reynolds should direct Halo. Remember he did Waterworld!! If there’s a problem just throw more money at it – it’ll work itself out.
make amends for kong??? I didn’t know you hated it…..
yes!!! another ‘Halo’ post. I don’t care about this film one way or the other, but everytime you post about it I just sit and wait for the replies…lol…